فصل قال الشيخ الإمام الفاضل العالم الأجل الأقدم عبيد الله بن عبد الله أسد آبادي رحمه الله في كتاب المقنع في الإمامة .

Section. The shaykh, the excellent imam, the most venerable and foremost scholar 'Ubayd Allah b. 'Abd Allah Asadabadi, may God have mercy on him, said in the book al-Muqni' fi al-Imama:

فصل ، فيه طرف مما جرى في أمر السقيفة ليعلم أيضا كيف بنى القوم أمرهم على دفع ولي الأمر وصاحب الحق عن حقه .

A section containing part of what took place in the affair of the Saqifa, that it may be known also how the people built their affair upon driving the holder of the command and the possessor of the right away from his right.

أجمع أصحاب السير أنه لما قبض رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله اشتغل أمير المؤمنين عليه السلام بغسله وتجهيزه ، وكان المهاجرون والأنصار وغيرهم من قريش ينتظرون ما يكون من أمير المؤمنين عليه السلام فتصور لهم إبليس لعنه الله في صورة المغيرة بن شعبة أعور ثقيف ، وقال لهم : ما تنتظرون ؟

The authors of the biographies are agreed that when the Messenger of God, may God bless him and his Family, was taken, the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him, was occupied with washing him and preparing him; and the Emigrants and the Ansar and the rest of Quraysh were waiting to see what would come from the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him. Then Iblis, God curse him, appeared to them in the form of al-Mughira b. Shu'ba, the one-eyed man of Thaqif, and said to them: What are you waiting for?

قالوا : ما يكون من بني هاشم ، فقال لهم : امضوا ووسعوها يتسع ، فوالله لئن وقفتم إلى فراغهم لتصيرن فيهم ويصير قيصرانية وكسروية ، هذا وقد كان نفر من قريش من قبل ذلك ، كتبوا صحيفة بيعتهم [ بينهم خ ] وأودعوها أبا عبيدة بن الجراح ، وضمنوها بأنه إن قبض رسول الله صلى الله عليه وآله أو قتل ، عدل بالإمامة عن بني هاشم حتى لا تجمع لهم النبوة والخلافة .

They said: For what will come from the Banu Hashim. He said to them: Go on, and make it wide, and it will widen. By God, if you stand by until they are finished, it will come to be among them and will become a thing of Caesars and Chosroes. And before this a number of Quraysh had written a document of their agreement [among themselves] and deposited it with Abu 'Ubayda b. al-Jarrah, pledging in it that if the Messenger of God, may God bless him and his Family, were taken or slain, the imamate should be turned away from the Banu Hashim, so that prophethood and caliphate should not be gathered for them.

ثم جاء إبليس لعنه الله وحثهم وزين لهم ما أتوه فنهضوا إلى سقيفة بني ساعدة وساق كلامه إلى أن قال : وأنا أشرح بمشيئة الله تعالى وعونه طرفا مما جرى في السقيفة لا بد منه ولا غنى عنه ، حتى يعلم كيف استهانوا بالدين وكيف خولف صاحب الشرع صلوات الله عليه وآله .

Then Iblis, God curse him, came and urged them on and made fair to them what they came to; and they went off to the portico of Banu Sa'ida. — And he carried his words on until he said: I shall set out, by the will of God Most High and His help, a part of what took place at the Saqifa which cannot be dispensed with and from which there is no escape, so that it may be known how they made light of the religion and how the master of the sacred law, God's blessings be upon him and his Family, was opposed.